This invention relates to holders for attachment of lights to head gear such as fire-fighter helmets, hats, caps and head bands.
Lights have long been attachable centrally to a front portion of mining helmets and other types of hard hats used for construction, maintenance and other working conditions. But fire-fighter helmets and most other hats and caps require discretionary attachment of lighter and more adjustable lights. Previously, holders for lights attachable to fire-fighter helmets have been either clipped onto a brim or bolted to a crown proximate the brim. Lights attachable to construction helmets have been belted on like a mining light. None have been attachable onto a side post in a manner taught by this invention. Heat resistance and minute weight of special small lights with high lighting capacity make side attachment to faceplate bolts particularly significant for fire-fighter helmets. Typically, such special lights are pen-sized flashlights that weigh only one-to-several ounces but have the lighting capacity of large flashlights. They are advantageous also for caps similar to baseball caps and for a wide variety of hats and helmets with various types of brims and crowns. The light holder taught by this invention is advantageous for all types of hats, helmets, caps and head bands.
The clip-on and bolt-on light holders used in the fire-fighter industry are not known to be described in issued patents. Nor are some types of hatband lights that fit onto various helmets like a hatband with the light facing forward from the front of the helmets. But neither are adjustable. The clip-on types do not stay on reliably. The bolt-on type sacrifice structural integrity of fire-fighter helmets. Neither are attachable with adequate reliability to other types of helmets or to hats and caps. Also, known types have C-spring clamps that do not hold the lights reliably. The hatband types position lights in front where they are too easily damaged by head-butting conditions of fire fighting.
Patented light holders include a headband device for holding a flashlight as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,631 granted to Marshall. The Marshall patent employed Velcro.RTM. strips for attaching a flashlight to a headband. It did not have pivotal adjustment as taught by this invention. U.S. Pat. No. 2,765,398 granted to Mays taught a flashlight holder on top of a cap with a chin strap to hold it in place. U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,069 granted to Eichost taught opposing pairs of C-clamps to hold flashlights on earphones. U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,187 granted to Herrick taught a helmet-top light holder with an acute dihedral structure in which a flashlight was held with a strap from opposite surfaces of the dihedral structure. U.S. Pat. No. 3,249,271 granted to Allbritton described two C-clamps juxtaposed on a rigid strip that was pivotal on a fastener shaft at a side of a headband. These and other patents are examples of different types of light holders on head gear. No light holders like this invention are known or believed to exist.